‘Please don't put me on line with the Archbishop’

Cape Town. 111004. Desmond Tutu speaks out about the ANC during a press conferecne after the Dalai Lama was refused a visa to South Africa for his birthday. Photo by Michael Walker

Cape Town. 111004. Desmond Tutu speaks out about the ANC during a press conferecne after the Dalai Lama was refused a visa to South Africa for his birthday. Photo by Michael Walker

Published Oct 5, 2011

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Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale asked Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu on Wednesday not to pray against him or the government.

“Please don't put me on line with the Archbishop. I said I don't want Mpilo (his middle name) to pray against me,” Sexwale quipped in an interview on Talk Radio 702.

“I want to ask you please don't pray against our government.”

On Tuesday, reacting to the way in which the government had handled a visa application by the Dalai Lama, Tutu said South Africans would pray for the downfall of the ANC.

“We will pray as we prayed for the downfall of the apartheid government. We will pray for the downfall of a government that misrepresents us,” Tutu said at a news briefing in Cape Town.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader cancelled a trip to South Africa on Tuesday because of apparent dithering over his visa application. He was invited to attend Tutu's 80th birthday in Cape Town on Friday.

Sexwale told Tutu on Wednesday he was someone he loved and respected, adding it was “unfortunate” that the matter happened the way it did.

Tutu replied: “I'm a very sad old man who had thought that you guys approximated the kind of values that we support and what has happened is unconscionable.

“It isn't anything that anyone of us can justify. The Dalai Lama is a world figure.”

Sexwale concluded his part of the interview saying: “We love you. Just know that, and your track record speaks for itself in this country. May God forgive, but may He also bless.”

Tutu responded: “God bless you. I love you.”

He said South Africa was siding with oppressors in the way it had handled the visa application.

The international community had always believed South Africa would side with the oppressed, considering what the country had gone through.

“And here we are siding with one of the most vicious oppressors... and we are scared to say no,” Tutu said.

He said the Dalai Lama had been planning to speak about compassion, love and drivers of change during his visit in South Africa.

“We betrayed our struggle. We betrayed our Constitution and all the people who were involved in our struggle must be turning in their graves.” – Sapa

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